will-o'-the-wisp
by dontwaitupxx
Summary: All he wanted was to see her smile again.


will-o'-the-wisp

By: dontwaitupxx

* * *

"I want to see her smile again with my own eyes."

* * *

In comparison to this, storming Hyrule Castle was easy.

It was methodical, in a way. Link knew the layout of the castle, every nook and cranny, every caved passageway, every _secret _passageway, from the docks all the way up to the Sanctum of the castle. The library was the hub: all paths led into the library. Find the library, and you can get anywhere.

Desperate for a memory of her, or even a glimpse into her, he had taken trips prior to this final mission into the castle: specifically, her chambers and her study. He had memorized every inch of her living quarters, memorized every word in her diary and field journal, wishing desperately and fruitlessly that he would remember something else; anything else. Alas, nothing came to him as he studied those words and gazed upon the chambers, nothing except for a memory on the balcony to her study: a sunny day, the princess beautiful, overlooking the railing, and her father coarse, Link's head held down, sunken onto one knee, his knuckles turning white from how tightly he was holding his fists.

He could have done well enough without that memory.

He started in the bottom of Hyrule Castle, in the docks, and made his way up and out. The monsters were nothing, at least, nothing compared to what the princess was fighting, and so Link, Master Sword in hand, slashed down every monster that came into his path with ease, doing whatever it took for him to see the princess smile at him again.

He made his way to the library, cutting down the various monsters in his way. They fell to the ground effortlessly, the glow of the Master Sword slashing deep into their malice. Once there, he climbed up and out, trekking through various hallways made of decayed red velvet and hallways of dark, cold stone. The hallways always held a sense of nostalgia for him, a sense of knowing on the tip of his tongue, yet the memories and recollections never came. Once near the dining hall, he looked towards a caved in archway and knew without a doubt that it was the entrance to the kitchens. He wasn't sure how he knew that, but he knew it to be true. Perhaps it was a place that he had frequented one hundred years prior; Zelda did say that he was quite the glutton.

He raced down the next hallway, fighting off Moblins and Lizalfo and pools of malice, its large, poisonous eye blinking at him before being ill met with one of his arrows, destroying the malice blocking his path. He had to make his way up and out of the castle, up to the inner sanctum in the place once blessed by the goddess Hylia herself. It had been the perfect place for the princess to hold the Calamity Ganon until he could join her; if she couldn't hold him there, she couldn't hold him anywhere.

He had hardly any memories to his name, save for a handful of memories, some of which weren't even _his, _and some of which he would have been better off without. He still had barely a clue as to who he was a century prior, but that was why he was storming the castle. By destroying the Calamity, he would free Zelda, and by freeing Zelda, he would have one person in this world that truly _knew _him one hundred years prior, besides the Sheikah and the Zora. She would have all of the answers that he sought, and could help him fill in the blanks.

He had been drawn to her voice ever since he woke in the Shrine of Resurrection. He was desperate to hear her voice. Though he had not any memories of that voice, it was a voice that he knew at the core of his being. He sought anything that might remind him more of the cadence of her voice. Upon being sent to Impa at Kakariko Village, she told him that the Princess' final request was for him to free the four Divine Beasts, and so that he did, freeing Vah Ruta, Vah Rudania, Vah Medoh, and Vah Naboris, as well as their respective Champions, their green will-o'-the-wisps dancing around their ankles as they levitated in the air. He remembered scarcely a thing about the Champions. If he were honest, he didn't feel any sadness or sorrow upon seeing their ghostly forms, and he supposed the Link from one hundred years ago would have. He had memories of the princess, though, and had felt a connection to her. Perhaps that had to mean something.

He found himself drawn to the Lost Woods, weaving in and out of the trees through the fog, their maniacal faces laughing at him. He finally had made his way to the Korok Forest, where the Great Deku tree had bestowed upon him a memory that was not even his. It was that of the princess, leaving the sword to rest one hundred years prior. She had asked him to give a message to Link, when he came back for the sword. However, they were not his words to tell, and told her that those words would sound better coming from her. How he longed to know what those words were, as the memory itched and prodded at him. She truly did have a smile like the sun: that was something that both him and the Great Deku Tree could agree upon. From there, with the Master Sword in hand, he knew he had to storm Hyrule Castle; he would risk it all if it meant he could see her smile again.

He made his way to the observation room, making his way up one of the staircases to look outside. Up on the balcony, he blinked, and saw the king next to him and all of the king's subjects down below, listening to him address them. Link was, oddly enough, standing by the king's side during this, and upon listening to the king's words, realized that he was announcing Link as the new Hylian Champion. As he said this, the crowd beneath them roared, cheers and applause making their way up to Link high up on the balcony. As he looked down over the balcony, he saw nothing but a destroyed castle town.

Instinct told him to move, and he ducked out of the way, as a Guardian laser shot and exploded where he had been not a second prior.

He ventured back outside and scaled the walls, aware of the laser pointed on his back, but knowing that if he moved quickly enough, it wouldn't be able to hit him. He ducked out of the way at the last second behind a rock, the heat of the blast singeing the ends of his hair.

He was so close to saving the princess, to seeing her again. He made his way through two guardhouses, and fought his way against the two Lynels that guarded them. He let his defense down for a second against one and got a nasty gash on his right arm. It jogged a memory for him: of a fight with a Lynel, up at the top of Shatterback Point. He had fought one up there twice: once a couple of months ago, and once before, one hundred years prior. He remembered the Lynel terrorizing the Zora's a century ago and he received a similar wound then too. He clutched at his arm, shaking the pain and the memory away. He was being sloppy; there was no room for error on this mission. It was the princess' life at stake.

He made his way up the last stretch of the winding path, dodging left and right as the guardian's lasers blasted all around him. He felt a burning on his back, and looking over his shoulder, he saw that his Champion's Tunic had caught fire. Rather than stop –

_\- because he didn't have time to stop, he had already wasted one hundred years sleeping instead of saving her, he couldn't waste another second -_

\- he sprinted ahead, the winds around him from running and the high altitude of Hyrule Castle extinguishing the flames. He still felt a nasty burn there; he knew better than to look at it. It felt dulled down compared to how he thought it should feel, but that didn't matter. He would have time to care for it later once he saved the princess.

In comparison to this, facing Calamity Ganon was easy.

Finally, more than a century later, he entered the Sanctum of Hyrule Castle. He saw the Tri-Force on the ground in front of him, and briefly saw the four Champions beside him, Urbosa and Revali to his left, Mipha and Daruk to his right. In front of him stood Princess Zelda. It was the day that the five of them were officially named Hyrule's Champions, with the princess as their leader. And above them, was the king, his voice booming throughout the Sanctum. Link looked up, and up, until –

He was jarred out of this memory, as instead of seeing the king, he saw a giant webbed sac, twitching and groaning, and then: he heard her voice.

How he longed to hear her voice. Ever since hearing her voice in the Shrine of Resurrection, he was drawn to her. Everything that he would do from that moment on would be with the purpose of saving her, of seeing her smile again. He longed for each new memory, for each new memory of the cadence of her voice. He even longed for the blood moons, just so he would hear her voice once again.

She was telling him that she was unable to hold him back any longer, that the Calamity Ganon was breaking free of his bonds.

Well that didn't matter any longer. She wouldn't have to fight anymore.

The fighting went on for hours, or perhaps it was only minutes, Link wasn't sure. He did know that when the monster had broken free of its cocoon, the weight of it was too much for the floor of the sanctum, and it had _crumbled _beneath it, sending both of them down into the depths of Hyrule Castle, to a room long forgotten. Perhaps this was better; it would help to keep the fighting contained.

The second Calamity Ganon let out its first cry, the Champions all let out theirs, as they piloted their Divine Beasts and unleashed their fury upon the beast. From all four corners of Hyrule came the magnificent beams of plasma from their beasts, having been pinpointed on the castle and locked and ready for him. The combined power of the four Divine Beasts heavily crippled Calamity Ganon, and as Link pulled out the Master Sword, it glowed with a divine power.

It was time to end this.

Calamity Ganon was a grotesque thing, having absorbed the power and technology of the Ancient Sheikah relics that had attacked it a century prior to supplement where it lacked: an Ancient Battle Axe here, a guardian's laser there - all pieced together by glowing quantities of malice: oozing and burning.

But wasn't that what the combat trials in the shrines were for? Link had been training for this; it was nothing he couldn't handle.

So he persevered; and finally, it was a final stab in Calamity Ganon's eye with the glowing tipped blade of the Master Sword that did the Calamity in in this form.

A deafening screech; and then nothing. Link was transported by the princess outside of Hyrule Castle onto the Hyrule Fields, in wake of the Calamity's last, and final form.

Zelda's voice whispered in his ear, a calming and beautiful thing. She informed him that the Calamity had given up reincarnation, and assumed a final, malice incarnate form: a dark beast. The malice was hot and burning, slick and oozing, and Link could feel its radiation pulsing off of the beast. The Master Sword, as powerful as it might be, was not enough, and so Zelda gifted him the Bow of Light, straight from the heavens and blessed by the Goddess.

Atop his steed, and Bow of Light in hand, he steeled himself.

In comparison to this, fighting the Dark Beast Ganon was easy.

The Hyrule Fields burned, as malice dripped and oozed off of the Dark Beast Ganon. Link, riding bareback on his horse, dodged the malice left and right, as he looked for an opening on the beast. More than once, the malice dropped onto him, usually on his tunic, but sometimes on bare skin. The way it burned and stung was unlike anything he had ever felt. But that didn't matter. There was no turning back.

The fires on the fields created many an updraft, and Link took that as an opportunity to see eye to eye with the Dark Beast, to put them on the same level, as Link held back the string on the Bow of Light and shot, golden light cascading forward into Ganon's weak points. Though Link could not see the beast faltering, Zelda whispered in his ear that it was working.

That was all the encouragement that he needed to keep going. He found himself diving the horse under the beast, making large arcs around the beast as he looked for more weak points. Finally, a weak point was opened at the very front of the Dark Beast, and Link leapt into the air onto the updraft and pulled back on the Bow of Light, sending the divine light forward with zero hesitation.

Like a twinkling star in the night sky, a drop of light flew skyward from the eye of the beast, glowing in divine power. Then he saw her from below: glowing in a golden green light, in perfect, practiced prayer.

Yet something didn't seem right to the hero.

The princess slowly floated to the ground, golden green light cascading off of her in waves, and opened her eyes for the first time in over a century. Her eyes held a soft sadness to them, as they looked up into the face of the Dark Beast. The beast growled and spit, hunkering down on its massive legs, and in one final attempt, the beast evaporated into a ghostly form, swirling up into the malice imbedded air, before soaring back down in one final attack.

The princess, though, held out her hand, the power of the Tri-Force rippling out in powerful waves, pushing the demon back, before trapping it in a massive sphere of light, pulsating and powerful. The demon beast tried to escape it, but to no avail, roaring and groaning as the light engulfed the dark, destroying the malice and eradicating it from existence.

The Calamity Ganon was finally sucked into a pinpoint smaller than a grain of sand, nearly invisible to the naked eye, before disappearing completely.

And then, the Hyrule Fields were quiet once again.

But not all was well with the hero and the princess.

The pillars surrounding Hyrule Castle glowed blue, the Guardians in the fields ceased functionality, the monsters all across Hyrule disappeared in a puff of smoke, all traces of existence vanished.

The Princess stood a few feet away from her knight, her hands now down by her side, no longer held together in prayer. However, she still was glowing in that golden green light, and Link could not help but think that she should not still be glowing.

Storming Hyrule Castle, facing the Calamity Ganon, and facing the Dark Beast Ganon, all of that was easy, in comparison to this. Freeing the Divine Beasts had been trivial. Every trial, injury, and hardship up to this point had all been child's play. Nothing in the world, nothing in all of Hyrule or beyond could have prepared him for this.

Zelda had his back to him, her prayer dress billowing out around her, seemingly drifting in the breeze, except there was no wind. Around her glowed a greenish tint; below her, green will-o'-the-wisps danced around her feet.

She floated above the ground, an ethereal thing, much like the Champions had in their Divine Beasts.

Link couldn't breathe.

Hesitantly, he took a step forward on shaking legs, not believing his eyes but perhaps trusting his touch. He reached forward, his fingers outstretched as he tried to place his hand on her shoulder.

His hand fell through her floating form, as though she wasn't truly there. Perhaps this was a dream; a nightmare that he could not wake himself up from. Perhaps he would wake any moment to find that none of this - the Divine Beasts, the one hundred year slumber, the Great Calamity – had ever happened. Perhaps he would tell her about it later once he woke, and they would laugh about it and assure each other that what he had dreamed was impossible.

And yet, it seemed he could not wake up.

Zelda seemed not to notice, or perhaps, she was trying as hard as she might to put up a brave front for her knight. However, that brave front faltered, as she found that she did not have the courage to turn around and face him. She had known for one hundred years that she was dead: that it was her dying breath that had sealed the calamity away until the hero could return. She had a century to figure out what words to say, what inflections to use, and yet in that moment, she knew not what to say.

She took a deep breath, and sighed. She could be courageous.

"I've been keeping watch over you all this time," she began, her words catching, "I've witnessed your struggles to return to us as well as your trials in battle."

The clouds above her were parting: the sun was shining on Hyrule once again.

"I always thought – no, I always believed – that you would find a way to defeat Ganon. I never lost faith in you over these many years…"

She steeled herself, bracing herself to face him. She turned around.

"Thank you Link… the hero of Hyrule."

The words were nearly caught in her throat, but she had to ask.

"May I ask," she said, her voice soft, a whisper on the wind, "Do you really remember me?"

And like a tsunami crashing down on him, he remembered everything from his life one hundred years prior: every moment spent with her, every moment spent shielding her, every moment spent loving her.

He nodded, not trusting his voice.

Zelda smiled, a sad sort of thing, before she began to fad away all together, her hand reaching towards him.

"I'm sorry to hear that," was her final goodbye, the green will-o'-the-wisps dancing around her before she disappeared completely.

* * *

All he wanted was to see her smile again.


End file.
